


A secret hidden underwater

by DaZeli



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Mention of Past Minor Character Death, Siren Dex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 15:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6760603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaZeli/pseuds/DaZeli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dex is only half human. When submerged in water, he turns into a siren.<br/>He tries his best to keep it a secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A secret hidden underwater

**Author's Note:**

> So I have no idea where I was going with this, I just loved the idea of Dex turning into a sea creature when underwater, so I apologise for any inconsistencies.
> 
> This fic is unbetaed, so I'm sorry if my English isn't super good in this one. Hope you enjoy!

Dex had a big secret; he’s partly not human. More precisely, he is half siren. He inherited that part of himself from his mother, and had learned from a very young age to not sing when people were around, and to never sing too loud, in case people could hear him. Dex was never big on singing, so it wasn’t that hard, what was hard though was explaining to his friends why he wouldn’t sing with them. He always said things like “I can’t sing” or “No thank you, I don’t sing” but they were all lies; because he does sing, and when he sings, his voice sounds so clear and beautiful to other people that they leave everything they were doing to follow his voice.

But the singing isn’t the weirdest part; because he is half siren, when he is submerged underwater, he turns into an actual siren; not the flying ones, the swimming ones, who often get confused with mermaids; with scales, sharp teeth, alligator eyes, gills, webbed hands and feet and basically the more monstrous version of a mermaid, made to lure fishermen into making their boat hit the bottom and kill them. The fact that his mother decided to live on land didn’t erase the sea creature blood from her veins, and she passed it on to him.

When he showers, everything is fine; there isn’t enough water to trigger his transformation; which is something he’s grateful for. But there is not way in hell he will ever go near a bath or any huge body of water except the sea, and only on his uncle’s boat, because his uncle knows, so Dex isn’t afraid of him seeing him turn into a hideous sea creature, besides, sometimes it’s very useful for him to have these abilities when it comes to lobster fishing.

But Nursey doesn’t know all that, so to him, Dex is just a weird guy who’s too uptight to sing and with an illogical fear of swimming.

It’s true that Nursey always found Dex to be weird in some ways, but he always thought it was because Dex was too uptight for his own good, so he liked to tease Dex as much as possible about it. It’s a miracle Dex hasn’t sung to lure Nursey to the pond to drown him in the dead of the night. Not that Dex ever had any real intention of killing anyone, but he had to admit he thought about it at least once.

Of course, when their relation grew more civil during spring semester, all thoughts of drowning Nursey were gone. They still bickered, but they weren’t having fights where they were at each other’s throats anymore, and that was a real improvement. So much that they were now friends.

-*-

One day in mid-March, when they were done with midterms and waiting to go home, the whole gang went to celebrate reading week by the Pond. It was a very hot day, so everyone decided to go swimming, except Dex, who stayed far away from the water. Nursey, thinking Dex had no reason to not come into the water, since he even was in his swimming suit,  made up a plan with Ransom and Holster to lure him in.

“Let’s go jump from the bridge!” Holster said.

“Fuck yeah!” Ransom replied.

Nursey followed them and so did Dex, because he was curious to watch. The bridge was pretty close by and not very high, hence, why it wasn’t dangerous at all to jump from it. Once they were on the bridge, they pretended to check the water and asked Dex if he could see anything or anyone close by. Once Dex was close to the railing, they caught him and threw him over. Dex hit the water in a big splash.

They watched the water; they could see bubbles, but Dex wasn’t coming back up. They were just starting to worry when they heard singing. It was beautifully harmonious and probably the most soothing sound Nursey had ever heard. When Nursey asked Ransom and Holster if they knew where it came from, they didn’t reply. They looked transfixed, as if stuck in a sort of trance, and when Nursey looked around at the people around them, they all looked like Ransom and Holster and converging their way.

And that’s when Dex got out of the water; Nursey turned around to look at him and saw Dex, covered in red scales, getting out of the water and singing. Nursey looked at Dex and noticed the sharp teeth, his webbed hands and feet and his weird, piercing eyes. Nursey had never seen anyone like that.

As Nursey was observing in awe, Dex didn’t notice that he wasn’t in a trance like the others. He quickly dried himself up, returning to his human form, before putting his clothes back on and stopping his singing. Once the effect wore off, nobody remembered what had happened or how they got there.

Except Nursey, who had watched everything wondering what was happening. When he came back to Earth, Dex was already gone, walking away from the scene.

What had just happened?

-*-

When he had fallen into the water, Dex had panicked. He didn’t want anyone to see him in his siren form. The only solution he found was to sing, to distract everyone while he turned back to his human form, that way nobody would remember seeing him as a siren. His plan worked well and he was able to escape back to his dorm. Ransom and Holster apologized later for throwing him in the water, but it was complete silence from Nursey.

Nursey eventually apologized, but he was still confused as to what had happened. He turned to the internet to try and find out what he had seen. Google gave him his answer and Nursey wanted to facepalm himself for not having thought of it earlier; Dex was a siren. He didn’t fit the description point for point, but there were obvious similarities and the whole singing thing? Yeah, definitely a siren thing.

But he still had so many questions; why was Dex a siren? Why wasn’t he affected by Dex’s singing? Was that why Dex never went swimming? The Internet could only answer so much, so he thought maybe he should ask Dex himself… But how would he explain to Dex he wasn’t affected by his singing without having Dex freak out on him?

Well, the opportunity showed itself in early April. Ransom and Holster were having fun playing tricks on everyone near the Haus with buckets of water. Bitty had already been a victim and so had Nursey. When Dex showed up, Nursey was drying himself on the front porch.

“SHOWER TIME!” Ransom and Holster screamed in unison as they poured two huge buckets of water on Dex.

There was so much water in those buckets that it was enough to trigger Dex’s transformation. Dex’s first reflex was to run inside and head straight to the bathroom, desperately in search of something to dry himself with. Nursey followed him and closed the door behind him.

“Here,” Nursey said, giving Dex a towel he grabbed from Shitty’s room. He could see the scales creeping up on Dex’s face.

Dex grabbed the towel quickly and dried himself, reversing the transformation.

“Why… Why are you not freaking out?” Dex asked him.

“Because I already saw you last time, when we threw you into the Pond,” Nursey replied.

“But I sang… You’re not supposed to remember anything…” Dex replied, confused.

“Your singing didn’t affect me apparently,” Nursey shrugged.

“I guess I owe you an explanation,” Dex blushed from head to toes now that he has returned to normal, “I am part siren. My mom was a siren and my dad is human. I inherited my mom's characteristics. When I sing, people fall into a trance and are drawn to me, and when I get submerged in water, I turn into a siren,” Dex explained.

“I see, that explains a lot, but not why I’m not drawn to you when you sing,” Nursey said.

“I don’t know either, but please don’t tell anyone, nobody is supposed to know this,” Dex told him.

“I won’t, promise. Your singing is beautiful, though, will I be able to hear it more often?” Nursey asks back, smirking.

“In your dreams, Nurse,” Dex snickered.

Now that Dex was dry, they returned to the porch where they watched Chowder get  soaked by Ransom and Holster from the reading room. They laughed and told Chowder there was a towel in the upstair bathroom.

-*-

As they approached the end of April, the weather got warmer, and of course, that meant people were going swimming more often. Dex always tagged along, but never entered the water. Nursey knew why and thought it was a little sad; because the way Dex was looking at the water, he really looked like he wanted to jump in and swim for a while. When he got out of the water, Nursey went to sit next to Dex.

“We should come back tonight, what do you think?” Nursey asked him. Dex immediately lit up.

“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Dex replied, smiling.

They came back when the sun was setting, pretty much everyone was gone and those who remained were all on one side of the Pond. They chose a place where nobody could see them from a distance and Dex didn’t have to be asked that he jumped directly into the water, diving to the bottom. Dex always had a preference for saltwater, but right now water was water and even if it was a little murky, he would deal for the sake of being able to swim.

When he came back to the surface, Nursey was sitting close to the water. Nursey had been watching the water, trying to guess where Dex would resurface. When Dex finally came back up, Nursey observed him closely. Even if Dex looked like a sea monsters, some things were still the same: his eyes were still bright amber, even more so now that his pupils were elliptical and thin, he still had his red hair, which only looked brighter because of the dark red scales he had on most of his body, he even had a small dorsal fin that Nursey didn’t notice before.

They didn’t talk to each other until Dex came out of the water. Nursey immediately handed him the towel he brought with him and Dex smiled at him with all his sharp teeth before drying his face, returning to normal. Once Dex was dried, they walked back to the dorms.

“Thanks, for coming with me, it’s nice to swim once a while, even in murky water,” Dex told him, smiling faintly.

“No problem, I know the day must’ve long, watching others swim and have fun while you couldn’t. Maybe we should break into the pool building? Heard they recently got a saltwater thingy installed to save on chlorine or something,” Nursey replied.

“I would like that,” Dex smiled.

-*-

They grew incredibly close since then; they shared stories and Dex would tell him about his life and how he dealt being half-siren and Nursey would help him as best he could to keep his secret safe. One night, they broke into the pool building and Dex dove into the water almost immediately. Nursey smiled and watched Dex swim around the pool; his webbed feet and hands making it easy for him to swim incredibly fast, especially since he was naked and the scales made him more dynamic in the water.

“Why don’t you join me?” Dex asked him.

“I’d rather watch, I was never a fan of swimming,” Nursey replied.

“As you wish, but you’re missing out, the water is great,” Dex replied, diving again.

Except Dex had no intentions of letting Nursey get away; he had to give him payback for the time Nursey, Ransom and Holster threw him into the Pond, so Dex started singing. He knew Nursey wasn’t affected by his voice, but it still distracted him enough. Nursey sat with his feet in the water, listening to Dex sing.

All of a sudden, Dex burst out of the water and grabbed Nursey, bringing him into the pool. Nursey quickly got his head out of the water and swam back to the edge of the pool.

“What the fuck, Poindexter!” He exclaimed.

“Payback, Nurse,” Dex giggled.

Nursey felt himself be grabbed again and carried away from the edge. He tried to swim back to it, but every time, Dex would drag him back to the middle of the pool. He still had foot, but clearly Dex was stronger than he was in the water.

“You should take off your clothes,” Dex chuckled, “Maybe you’d stand a chance then.”

Nursey thought that taking off his clothes was a good idea since it would save them from the chlorine and saltwater. So he took them all off and Dex put them by the pool while still keeping Nursey in the middle.

“How long are you planning to keep me in here?” Nursey asked.

“Until you find a way to get out or you convince me to let you go,” Dex smirked with his sharp teeth.

Nursey had tried many different ways, but he was unable to leave the pool by force, so he had to try and convince Dex to let him out. He tried arguing and Dex simply giggled and laughed, swimming around him.

Then, Nursey had an idea. He grabbed Dex and carried him out of the pool, so he could get out himself. Dex was squirming and giggling and Nursey thought it was adorable how childish this all was. He finally got out of the water and dried himself, throwing a towel toward Dex, who grabbed it and dried himself, returning to his human form.

They put their clothes back on, even if Nursey’s were wet. He could’ve thrown Dex’s clothes into the pool, but knowing Dex’s situation, it wasn’t really a good idea. Dex was smiling from ear to ear and Nursey realized he had never seen Dex this happy.

“That was fun,” Dex said to him, smiling.

“Yeah, it was, we should do that again sometimes, but I’ll bring my swimming suit,” Nursey replied, laughing.

“Yeah, we should hurry up, we don’t want you to catch something,” Dex said, walking a little faster toward the dorms.

Once they reached the building, it started raining. They were at Nursey’s dorm and Dex’s dorm was a least another five minutes, but walking under the rain didn’t seem like a good idea.

“Does the rain affects you?” he asked Dex.

“Depends, heavy rain like this, yes, a little, but light drizzle, no. That’s why I don’t transform in the showers; I really need to be submerged. Last time at the Haus, if the buckets didn’t have so much water, it wouldn’t have triggered the transformation,” Dex explained to Nursey.

“Let’s not take any chances and stay over, there’s nothing going on tomorrow, so…” Nursey shrugged.

Dex agreed to stay over, so they made their way to Nursey’s room. He was lucky enough to have a single, so they wouldn’t bother anyone. Nursey took off his clothes and put on his pajama pants while lending a pair of sweat to Dex. Their hands touched, and good lord, Dex’s hands were cold!

“Jesus Christ you’re cold! You should’ve told me you were freezing!” Nursey said as Dex was putting on the sweat pants.

“Well, when I transform, my body composition change so I am cold-blooded, when I turn human again, it takes a while for me to become hot-blooded again,” he says.

“Would warming up help?” Nursey asked.

“Probably, yeah. But I am not letting you sleep on the floor, it’s your room, so you keep the bed,” Dex said.

“Well, get into bed with me, body heat, y’know. Don’t make it weird, though, I know you will,” Nursey chuckled.

“I won’t! You already made it weird,” Dex replies, getting under the covers with Nursey.

Nursey spoons him and holds him close. Dex was freakishly cold, and if he hadn’t just explained to him why Nursey would’ve thought Dex was going to die. As he was spooning him, Nursey looked at the back of Dex’s neck. His hair was still damp and Nursey didn’t fail to notice a spot with bright shiny red scales.

“You have a spot,” Nursey said, smiling.

“Hm?” Dex asks back.

“You have scale spot on your neck,” Nursey repeats.

Dex automatically put his hand on the back of his neck to hide the spot and Nursey can see him blush. Nursey grabs Dex’s hands and pulls it back from his neck.

“Hey, it’s fine, I don’t mind,” Nursey says.

“That’s why I don’t like it when people are too close, they can see things like that, things they are not supposed to see,” Dex tells him.

“Well I know of it, and I don’t mind, I think it’s cute,” Nursey smiles, giving a peck on the spot of scales, who is already starting to fade away.

“Oh,” is Dex’s single response.

“I’m coming onto you while spooning in my bed and that’s all you have to say,” Nursey chuckles.

“I just… Didn’t think anyone would like me, especially not after seeing me turn into a freaking monster,” Dex replies.

“Hey, you’re not a monster, okay? You may not be a pretty little mermaid, but I don’t find you monstrous; I mean, yeah, you have sharp teeth and weird eyes, and scales and everything, but it’s not that repulsive. Besides, you only turn into a siren when in water, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m head over heels for you when you’re normal, which you are 90% of the time, so I don’t think it’s a deal breaker,” Nursey tells him.

“Thanks, that’s really nice of you. I’ve liked you for a while, but, y’know, didn’t think I could ever be with anyone,” Dex replies.

“Well, your mom did find you father, yes?” Nursey says, raising a brow.

“Female sirens look more like mermaids, not sea monsters. That’s why you never see male sirens,” Dex replied.

“Well, I’ve read that male sirens have huge dicks, so you know…” Nursey says, chuckling as Dex blush even darker.

“What the fuck!” Dex replied, laughing a little.

“Hey, there’s always a positive side to everything,” Nursey laughed.

“And that’s the positive side you come up with?” Dex says, turning around to face him.

“Hey, I think it’s pretty positive. More to have fun with, y’know,” Nursey smiled.

“Stop it, it’s embarrassing! And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to have sex with me when I’m a siren,” Dex adds.

“Who knows, maybe I’d be into it. It sounds pretty kinky,” Nursey chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows, making Dex laugh.

They kept talking for a while, giggling, smiling. Once they had calmed down, Nursey looked at Dex and smiled softly, before leaning in and pressing his lips against his. It was a soft, chaste kiss, that ended as quickly as it started, but it was enough to make Dex blush before he went to kiss him back, but deeper this time.

“We should really go to sleep,” Nursey smiled.

“Yeah, we should, let’s just, DTR tomorrow, that can wait,” Dex replied, smiling back.

They kissed once more and closed the light before going to sleep.

-*-

They decided to start dating, and they were quite happy with their decision. They kept sneaking into the pool building every few weeks, and Nursey let Dex swim to his heart’s content, and he would often join him, playing around in the water. Nursey got used to seeing Dex’s siren form and he even started to find him cute, not that he would admit it.

The best part was that he could now hear Dex sing more often; in the morning he could hear Dex hum to himself, when they showered together Dex would sing to him softly, just for him, and when they were alone, cuddling or doing anything really, Dex would indulge in singing him a song.

Of course, the others noticed, but they didn’t say anything. However, that was until Ransom and Holster caught them sneaking around the pool building one night. They thankfully waited until the next day to ask them about it, and both Nursey and Dex were even more grateful that they decided to do it in private.

“So, we’ve seen you two sneak around the pool building last night,” Ransom started.

“And we were wondering why? Because we thought Dex didn’t like swimming?” Holster added.

Nursey could feel Dex getting nervous by his side, so he made up something on the spot without giving away Dex’s secret.

“He prefers to swim in saltwater. He can’t stand being in water if it doesn’t have salt in it,” Nursey shrugged.

Dex nodded in approval to this statement.

“And I don’t like to swim when they’re so many people. It just doesn’t feel right,” Dex added.

Ransom and Holster were frowning, but their lie was very reasonable and made sense, many people couldn’t stand saltwater, so the opposite could also be true, and Dex really didn’t like swimming in front of an audience, for obvious reasons.

“Well, whatever floats your boat,” Holster shrugged.

“Your lobster boat!” Ransom added, making Holster laugh before fist bumping him.

When they left the room, Dex let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding and Nursey passed a reassuring arm around him. The secret was safe, at least for now, but they agreed that they needed to be more careful. Luckily, the semester was almost over, so they would be going home, meaning Dex’s secret would be safe.

-*-

Over the summer, Dex went to visit Nursey for a few weeks. Nursey had a pool with salt water, and of course, they spent a lot of time in it. Nursey’s parents were on vacations, so Dex could walk around in his siren form without any problem. They fooled around and had fun, and Nursey got the chance to explore the more subtle part of Dex’s body, both human and siren, and they proved to be very different, but it brought something into their bedroom activities that was sort of unexpected.

Once summer was over, they went back to Samwell. They had decided to rent an apartment together for the year, so they could be together, and it would cost much less than the crappy dorm they were in the previous year, and they got to share a bed every night.

Before school started, Ransom and Holster, as the new team captains, decided to have a pool party. Everything was taking place at Jack’s new apartment, where they had gotten Jack to rent the outdoor pool of the condominium for the evening. The tadpoles were not there yet, so it was just them, Jack and Shitty.

Everything had started out great, Jack and Bitty were making barbecue and everyone chatted while having fun in the pool. Dex, obviously, stayed as far away from the pool as possible. It was going smooth until Ransom and Holster noticed one important detail about the pool.

“Yo, Jack, is that saltwater?” Ransom asked him.

“Yes, actually. Apparently it’s very good for the skin,” Jack replied.

Ransom looked at Holster and they nodded before getting out of the pool, heading straight for Dex.

“Come on, Dex, it’s saltwater and nobody else is around, come join us, you have no reason not to!” Holster said to him, grabbing his arms, pulling him up from the chair he was in.

“Yeah bro, come play water polo with us!” Ransom added, dragging him towards the pool.

Dex tried to make up excuses, but they weren’t having any of it. He tried to make eye contact with someone to get help, but everyone was too absorbed by their own conversation. They dragged him to the water and Dex was getting more and more nervous.

“Come on, at least stay by the pool and enjoy the water!” Holster said.

They were holding him up above the water. Dex swallowed thickly. They lowered him slowly.

“Come on, touch it, you’ll see, it’s fine, it’s saltwater, Jack said so!” Ransom told him.

And then his feet were in the water and it caused them to transform. Dex was trembling, praying in his head for them to not notice anything, but of course, he had no such luck.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” Holster screamed, letting go of Dex in a moment of panic.

Ransom, surprised by Holster’s scream, let go of Dex as well, dropping him into the water. Dex was now completely submerged and panicking. His first reflex was to dive into the deep end, and for now, his only plan was to stay there.

Nursey, who was alerted by the screaming, noticed that Dex was gone from his chair and almost ran to the other two defensemen. Others soon joining them.

“What happened?” Nursey asked, trying to remain chill.

“His foot, it turned into… I don’t know what it was but it wasn’t human! I freaked out and dropped him, and now he’s gone into the deep end, and he’s not coming up…” Holster said, confused and panicked.

Everyone went to the deep end, trying to look at the bottom, but they couldn’t see anything, it was too dark down at the bottom to see anything correctly.

“I think I see him!” Shitty said, pointing one corner of the pool.

“Someone needs to go get him! He’ll drown down there!” Chowder said, just as panicked as Holster was.

“No,” Nursey said firmly, getting the attention of everyone.

“Nursey, I know you don’t like him a lot, but that’s no reason to—” Bitty started.

“No, I know what’s happening and you guys don’t. If you want him to come back up, you have to trust me,” Nursey said.

“But Nursey—” Chowder said.

“A normal human would’ve already been dead by now, and his corpse would be floating around, right now he’s swimming at the bottom, probably in panic, so just, trust me,” Nursey retorted.

Nursey sat by the water with his feet in it. He asked them to bring him towels, once everything was ready, they waited for a few minutes before they saw something come up, Nursey told everyone to back away. A minute later, Dex’s head emerged in between Nursey’s legs.

“There you are,” Nursey said softly, “I’m sorry about what happened, I should’ve paid more attention, but it’s fine now, don’t worry,” he reassured him.

Dex began to splutter, but Nursey made him stop. Nobody could see Dex yet, as he was hidden between Nursey’s legs, grabbing them firmly.

“But they’ll see me,” Dex said, obviously scared.

“It’s gonna be fine, I swear, trust me, okay?” Nursey replied.

Nursey got up and helped Dex get out. Everyone looked at him, and they heard a few gasp. Nursey quickly grabbed a towel and started drying a trembling Dex, and nobody said anything, except for Nursey who kept whispering to Dex that everything was okay. Once Dex was dry enough, he dared to look up at the others, before going to find refuge in Nursey’s arms, who led him to a long chair where Dex could rest.

The others sat on the other chairs nearby, and finally, they said something.

“Okay, there are so many things that need to be explained here,” Lardo started.

“First, are you two—” Bitty started.

“Dating!!!???” Chowder finished the sentence, sounding quite excited.

“Yes, we are, have been since last spring,” Nursey replied, still holding Dex against him.

“Okay, also what just happened? What did we see just now?” Shitty asked.

“Dex is half-siren. When he get submerged in water, he turns into one,” Nursey replied.

“Oh, fuck,” Ransom said, passing a hand through his hair.

“You said it, we fucked it up,” Holster added.

“Last time, at the Pond, Dex sang so everyone got into a trance and forgot about when he came out of the water, I guess since Holster already saw his foot, there was no point in singing, so he panicked and went to hide at the bottom of the deep end,” Nursey said.

“I am surprisingly unaffected by his singing, so I found out about it that day, and since then I’ve been trying to help,” Nursey finished.

“Oh, my God, Dex we are so sorry, fuck!” Holster apologized.

“Yeah, we’re so sorry. Damn, I feel like a bully now, shit,” Ransom added.

“It’s fine, as long as nobody tells anyone, and doesn’t force him into the water again,” Nursey said.

“Is it really, though? We fucked up so much that he doesn’t talk anymore,” Holster said.

Nursey looked down at Dex, who was hiding his face against him. He had calmed down from his initial panic and had stopped trembling.

“It’s fine,” Dex said, he still wasn’t looking at them, but at least he was replying, “I’m just… Glad nobody freaked out too much… Because, y’know, that’s what people do when they see a mons—”

“Don’t. Dexy, we already had that talk. You are not a monster,” Nursey cut him firmly.

“Yeah, monsters aren’t cool, but you’re super cool! You can breathe underwater, that’s so cool!” Chowder piped in.

“Because you don’t look human when in water doesn’t make you any less human. Monster do awful things to people, you’re not hurting anyone, so you’re obviously not a monster,” Shitty added.

“Monsters don’t play hockey,” Jack added.

Dex looked up at them as they kept telling him how he wasn’t a monster. Dex smiled and thanked them for their support, thanking destiny to have given him such nice friends. They talked a little, answering questions while Jack and Bitty returned to the barbecue. After eating, they returned to the water to play. Ransom challenged him to a race, which Dex won by a landslide, then he let Chowder touch his scales as he was observing him, since he wanted to be a marine biologist or something and kept saying how cool Dex was, and they ended it in a water polo match that Dex’s team won with twice as many points.

Afterward, they all got back inside Jack’s condo, changing into comfortable clothes. Nursey looked at him as he was changing, smiling to himself when he saw little scales spots. He went up to him, kissing the little spots near his neck.

“Scales spots,” he smiled, making Dex giggle.

As the scales spots disappeared, he held Dex close, still kissing the back of his neck.

“I’m still sorry, for earlier,” Nursey told him.

“Nursey, it’s fine, everyone is okay with it and I had fun in the end. Don’t worry about it,” Dex replied, turning around.

“You’re right, but I promise it won’t happen again,” Nursey said.

“And I know you’ll keep your promise,” Dex replied, kissing his nose.

They finished changing and joined the others in the living room and joined the discussion. Things were going to be fine, Dex was confident about it.

-*-

On the train back the next day, everyone was happy and chatting away. Chowder was asking Dex tons of questions and Dex was trying his best to answer him.

“Aren’t sirens like bird people?” Chowder asked him.

“Well, there are flying sirens, who are bird-like, and swimming sirens, who look like mermaids,” Dex said.

“What is the difference between swimming sirens and mermaids?” Ransom asked, joining their conversations.

“Mermaids aren’t real. It’s just people don’t know there are two species of sirens, so they call swimming sirens mermaids, but in reality, we’re both sirens, just not the same species,” Dex explained.

“I see, but why do you look nothing like a mermaid?” Holster asked.

“Because only female sirens look like that. They look less scary and more like humans. Otherwise, I’m not sure my dad would’ve taken my mom to his house,” he chuckled.

“Wait, does that mean all the little dexters are sirens too?” Nursey asked him.

“No… I’m the only one,” Dex said, looking down.

“So it’s only you and your mom?” Bitty asked.

“Only me,” Dex replied.

Everyone looked at him, obviously confused.

“My mom died giving birth to me,” Dex said, sounding more mournful than he had meant.

Nobody said anything for a minute, a heavy silence settling over them as everyone took in the news. Nursey passed an arm around his shoulders.

“I am so sorry,” Bitty said, apologetic.

“It’s okay, I didn’t know it until my junior year of high school, so I always thought Shannon was my mom. She always treated me like I was her son, so I never suspected anything. She’s been great, so I don’t feel out of place in my own family, besides, she does look like my real mom, so nobody ever questioned,” Dex said, smiling shyly.

The rest of the train ride was spent in relative silence. Once they arrived, Dex went back to his and Nursey’s apartment. The first thing they did was dropping their bag and going to cuddle on the couch. Nursey was feeling like Dex needed some love and care after these eventful days.

“You know, sometimes I wonder what she was like,” Dex said as he was resting his head against Nursey shoulder.

“I’m sure she was just as great as you are,” Nursey smiles, kissing the top of Dex’s hair, making Dex giggle.

“You’re such a sap, Derek,” Dex chuckled.

“You love it,” Nursey smirked.

“Yeah. I love you and your sappiness,” Dex smiled.

They kissed and Dex felt significantly lighter. He had never thought he could have this, but now he had it, and he had no intentions of letting it go. Turned out not being totally human didn’t automatically cursed him to being alone forever, and he was quite happy about that and hoped he would be for years to come.


End file.
